Today, the Commission has presented guidelines on the protection of minors, as well as a prototype of an age-verification app under the Digital Services Act (DSA). They will ensure that children and young people can continue to enjoy the opportunities the online world offers, such as learning, creativity and communication, while minimising the risks they face online, including exposure to harmful content and behaviour.
Guidelines on the protection of minors
The guidelines on the protection of minors ensure children enjoy high levels of privacy, safety and security on online platforms. This follows an inclusive and extensive consultation period, including with young people.
Among other things, the guidelines provide recommendations to address:
- Addictive design: Minors are particularly vulnerable to practices that can stimulate addictive behaviour. The guidelines suggest reducing minors' exposure to such practices, and disabling features that promote the excessive use of online services, like ‘streaks' and ‘read receipts' on messages.
- Cyberbullying: The guidelines recommend empowering minors to block or mute users, ensuring they cannot be added to groups without their explicit consent. They also recommend prohibiting accounts from downloading or taking screenshots of content posted by minors to prevent the unwanted distribution of sexualised or intimate content.
- Harmful content: Some recommender systems put children in harmful situations. The guidelines give young users more control over what they see, calling on platforms to prioritise explicit feedback from users, rather than relying on monitoring their browsing behaviour. If a young user indicates they do not want to see a certain type of content, it should not be recommended again.
- Unwanted contact from strangers: the guidelines recommend that platforms set minors' accounts that are private by default – that is, not visible to users that are not on their friends' list – to minimise the risk that they are contacted by strangers online.
The guidelines adopt a risk-based approach, like the DSA, recognising that online platforms may pose different types of risks to minors, depending on their nature, size, purpose and user base. Platforms should make sure that the measures they take are appropriate and do not disproportionately or unduly restrict children's rights.
Age verification solution
The prototype of the age verification app is user-friendly and protects privacy setting a ‘gold standard' in age assurance online. It will, for example, allow users to easily prove they are over 18 when accessing restricted adult content online, while remaining in full control of any other personal information, such as a user's exact age or identity. No one would be able to track, see or reconstruct what content individual users are consulting.
The verification app will be tested and further customised in collaboration with Member States, online platforms and end-users. The frontrunners - Denmark, Greece, Spain, France and Italy - will be the first to engage with the Commission on the technical solution with the aim of launching national age verification apps. This prototype can be integrated into a national app or remain a free-standing app.
The guidelines on the protection of minors outline when and how platforms should check the age of their users. They recommend age verification for adult content platforms and other platforms that pose high risks to the safety of minors. They specify that age assurance methods should be accurate, reliable, robust, non-intrusive and non-discriminatory.
Background
The guidelines on the protection of minors were developed through a comprehensive process, including research, feedback gathered through a call for evidence, stakeholder workshops held in October 2024 and June 2025, engagement with experts and a targeted public consultation.
The age verification blueprint began development in early 2025. It lays the groundwork for broader deployment of age-appropriate based services in the future and is built on the same technical specifications as the European Digital Identity Wallets (eID) that are to be rolled out before the end of 2026. This ensures compatibility between the two and enables the integration of the age verification functionality in the future eID Wallets.
The guidelines and the age verification blueprint build further on discussions in working group on the protection of minors, which is part of the European Board for Digital Services. Both bodies further strengthen the Commission's work on the protection of minors online through the Better Internet for Kids Strategy, the Audiovisual Media Services Directive and upcoming initiatives, such as the Digital Fairness Act.
For More Information
Find out more about the Guidelines on the Protection of Minors
Find out more about the age verification blueprint
Fact page on the age verification blueprint
Report on Call for Evidence on the Guidelines
Report on Targeted Public Consultation on the Guidelines
Report on focus group on the Guidelines
Quote(s)
Making sure our children and young people are safe online is of paramount importance to this Commission. The guidelines on the protection of minors for online platforms, combined with the new age verification blueprint, are a huge step forward in this regard. Platforms have no excuse to be continuing practices that put children at risk.
Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy
Children deserve a safe digital childhood. This is one of the main priorities for me during the Danish Presidency. Without proper age verification, we fail to protect children online. The guidelines launched today combined with the age verification app are both very important milestones. I want to thank the Commission for taking protection of minors seriously and look forward to speed up the political momentum on this important agenda. I will immediately explore the national scope for setting a minimum age for access to social media. We must do everything we can to protect minors online.
Caroline Stage Olsen, Minister for Digital Affairs of Denmark
Details
- Publication date
- 14 July 2025
- Author
- Representation in Cyprus